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      CommentAuthorvazub
    • CommentTimeSep 26th 2007 edited
     # 1
    Who uses what besides Gobo (or at least follows development)? What systems or distros draw your attention and fuel your interest these days?

    Personally, I haven't found a distro yet, that I can easily recommend to any newcomer to move to from Windows (my criterion). All of them are only as much usable as you are ready to accept many quirks and peculiarities that come with them. Lately, however, I've narrowed my personal preference list to several systems that I really admire for their philosophy or technical progress in different areas.

    Ubuntu
    A no-brainer here. The sheer volume of innovation that people put in it combined with overall distro polish and small size (1 cd only) makes it a number one choice for many people, me included. It is not perfect, mind you, but it is the most useful and consistent of them all by now. I am eagerly awaiting the 7.10 release - with its BulletproofX it will definitely be a bomb!

    PC-BSD
    My second best choice. I consider it even more usable and polished than Ubuntu, however, being based on FreeBSD means that there are some system-specific software-related quirks in it's usage. Still, PBI is the way to go, at least in what concerns usability innovations among *nixes.

    Zenwalk
    Something that I am really eager to try. I have heard many good things about this distro in terms of its simplicity, coherence and ease of use. Providing that Gobo in it's current state is rather unusable for me (some showstoppers remain unresolved) - Zenwalk might really turn out to be something good.
    Has anyone else used it? What is your opinion about it?

    Haiku
    This little gem is not even in beta-stage yet, however I deem it to have a great potential. If anyone here remembers an outstanding BeOS system from late 90-s - this is something to keep an eye on.

    Opensolaris-based (Belenix, Nexenta)
    Legendary kernel, a lot of innovation (ZFS, DTrace), love of CDDL. It's not ready for a prime-time on desktops (not much of modern hardware is supported), but I am following its progress closely. In a year or two it might pose some real threat to GNU/Linux competition-wise, mark my words. Waiting eagerly for that day.

    HelenOS
    It's in early stages of development, however, I am rather impressed with everything the team has done up to now. If they keep up with this pace - we may live long enough (cough.."Hurd" anyone?.. cough..) to see some real contenders on the microkernel front. Way to go people!

    And what are your favourites? ;)
    • CommentAuthorfossiili
    • CommentTimeOct 28th 2007
     # 2
    For a newbie I'll recommend Ark Linux (not Arch ..). It works very well even in an old computer I recently use. It is well supported. Look at http://www.arklinux.org/

    I also like Zenwalk but Ark is even better. Then comes Mandriva. Quick, safe and has Metisse. Debian 4 stable and easy to install contrary to common belief. Slackware 12 if you want to learn something not too difficult. Then Gentoo if you want to learn more.
    • CommentAuthorminotaur
    • CommentTimeNov 19th 2007
     # 3
    My choices:

    1. Ubuntu Ultimate (with a great combination of Ubuntu-Kubuntu-Xubuntu-Elbuntu, etc, etc!!)

    2. Gobolinux (I don't use it yet - look at my "Gobolinux didn't start" post!)

    2. Linux Mint (the ideal distro for newcomers from Windows-like me!)

    3. Gentoo with respect (too difficult for me as well as Gobo, I think! - told, I'm a newbie!)

    4. Elive, with the great enlightment environement. Same spirit as Geubuntu.
    • CommentAuthorm@cCo
    • CommentTimeNov 22nd 2007 edited
     # 4
    I'm in general interested in all that (relatively) new or unknown OSes like Haiku or Opensolaris as you cited, so I follow them with particular attention, even if not so regularly.
    I downloaded an opensolaris iso some time ago but not installed it yet. I'm thinking about trying it on a VM, when I'll succed to install it on Gobo :D

    P.S.: ReactOs is a very interesting project too, but in a very early stage. And with Microsoft in the way I don't know how long it will take to become ready as a desktop OS.
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      CommentAuthorvazub
    • CommentTimeNov 22nd 2007
     # 5
    Posted By: m@cCoI downloaded an opensolaris iso some time ago but not installed it yet. I'm thinking about trying it on a VM, when I'll succed to install it on Gobo :D

    You mean Project Indiana developer preview? Personally, I failed to have it loaded under kvm, but the LiveCD booted up without a hitch, and I was pretty impressed to see what Sun and Ian Murdock have already achieved. If they keep up this pace of development, I am pretty sure, that when version 1.0 appears somewhere in Spring 2008 I will be among those early adopters who move to it as a default installation, instead of, say, Ubuntu. I like the overall system innovation they provide, and CDDL is much better to my liking than rather alienating GPL (this is yet another topic for discussion).

    ReactOS is nice, I agree, but at the same time I fail to see a niche for this system among current available desktop solutions. I mean, it is highly unlikely, that anyone who tried *insert your favorite distro here* will go back to Windows-like heritage, especially with Wine making a steady progress). Just my 5 cents..
    • CommentAuthorm@cCo
    • CommentTimeNov 23rd 2007
     # 6
    Of course what you say about ReactOS is true, but I like to consider all the alternatives. Windows is not so bad after all, except for the fact that it is from Microsoft :D

    Concerning opensolaris I don't remember where I've got it from, probably it is the project you're speaking about. Btw you've awaken my interest for the CDDL (never read it yet). I think I'll give it a look now that I'm waiting for my class to start :P

    Bye.

    P.S.: to date my favourite distro remains gobolinux anyway, 'cause I really like the way it is designed and the way it tries to make things more usable/better without making it bloated.
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      CommentAuthorvazub
    • CommentTimeNov 23rd 2007
     # 7
    Posted By: m@cCoBtw you've awaken my interest for the CDDL (never read it yet). I think I'll give it a look now that I'm waiting for my class to start :P

    If more people are interested in discussing the licensing issues, it might be appropriate to open a specific thread eventually. But as for now, I encourage you to take a look at this entry. It provides for quite useful representation of the current state of things in this regard).

    As for Gobo being a favorite distro.. Well, it could have been my DEFAULT distro if it was more stable and usable on my current system - there are still too many bugs remaining, that prevent me from switching entirely. Thus, as for now, sadly, I have no other viable choice, but to fall back to Ubuntu...
    • CommentAuthorm@cCo
    • CommentTimeNov 23rd 2007 edited
     # 8
    I see. Fortunately it is quite usable and stable on my system, even if there are still some small annoyances to fix. Nothing relevant though.
    As for Ubuntu yes, it is, for me, the more "complete" distro on the scene, but you pay (as for any other sw which aim to be simple for everybody) this completeness with too many personalized layers/adds. Of course IMHO.
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      CommentAuthorvazub
    • CommentTimeDec 3rd 2007 edited
     # 9
    Several days ago I've found *put_DEITY_here*! It came to me in form of openSUSE 10.3 (KDE edition) :))
    What can I say more. This is the experience I was looking for, as a windows power user. Now, it would be totally perfect if only it used Gobo FSH... *sigh*
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      CommentAuthorsambarino
    • CommentTimeApr 17th 2008
     # 10
    i've used Fedora Core 6 a bit, also played around with dsl, there was a dsl-n with fvwm95 on it, cool for old pc's.
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      CommentAuthorvazub
    • CommentTimeApr 17th 2008
     # 11
    Yeah, Fedora was nice, but it still lacked something for me, so I continued searching. And after using openSUSE for a while I think I was too ecstatic earlier to proclaim it as my personal winner. Sure, it was nice and stable like a rock, like a monolith if you prefer, but this solidness was the very thing that made it feel rather "heavy" for me. Now I think of going back to be a proponent of a kind of ArchLinux with GoboFSH mix :)